GOOGLE AND MIVA MERCHANT CATEGORY AND PRODUCT PAGE SCREENS
BEING INDEXED
We reported way back in November of 2002 that we had discovered
the secret to getting Miva
Merchant category and product page screens indexed by Google. Google
had a problem with more than one ampersand in Miva Merchant category or
product urls (http://domain.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=CTGY&Store_Code=code&Category_Code=code).
This essentially meant that it was the store code causing the problem.
Recently, we announced on the merchant users list that Google has suddenly
started indexing category and product pages with or without two ampersands
(&Store_Code). This has and will inevitably lead to many questions.
Here are some answers.
Do I need to worry about shortening my Miva Merchant category and
product page urls anymore? Yes. Google may be king, but
there are still other search engines that may index your store better
with shorter urls and less variables (&). We will report on
exactly who seems to prefer shorter urls in the future. We will
also review the modules available for shortening Miva Merchant links
and even making them appear as static
links.
Since Google can index all of my store now regardless of the store
code or more than one ampersand, do I need to worry about creating static
pages by hand or with third-party static mirror modules like Search
Engine Killer? Yes, we would still recommend this. On average,
static pages seem to achieve higher rankings. However, don't ignore
your Miva Merchant pages. Our clients' Miva Merchant pages achieve
high rankings as well due to our optimization. Give yourself the
best chance for the most traffic.
Additional Information on Google and Miva Merchant
